Reader and telecommuter Brad Hutchings has developed what looks like a cool (and free) telecommuting tool:

You have a Mac, your friend runs Windows? In the room upstairs or half a world away… If you can dial a phone, you can share screens with Bosco’s Screen Share. Sometimes, showing is a lot easier than telling.

Check it out here. Brad works from home all the time. Sounds like the ultimate telecommuter, right? Strangely enough many researchers wouldn’t count him as a telecommuter because he’s not avoiding the conventional commute to the office. I’ve talked with other people like Brad and it’s pretty clear that if the work-at-home option somehow disappeared, they would not simply stop working. They would find other jobs and that would mean embarking on the traditional commute. In other words, their work arrangement certainly is allowing them to avoid the work commute. For more on this squabble, check out p. 5 of my recent study, The Quiet Success: Telecommuting’s Impact on Transportation and Beyond.

Ted Balaker is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and founding partner of Korchula Productions, a film and new media production company devoted to making important ideas entertaining.